Members of Kirklees Council’s Strategic Planning Committee were put under pressure to refuse the idea after a councillor from Bradford, which is just a few steps away from the entrance of the plant, urged them to throw it out.

Residents from the surrounding villages of Oakenshaw and Woodlands also claimed the increase in heavy goods vehicles would be a danger to road safety.

But the large brownfield plot is crucial to Kirklees Council’s development strategy and is its only potential industrial site that is not in the green belt.

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Councillors were told the main sticking point was that despite being next to a motorway the site has poor access.

Any journeys to and from it will have to be up the Bradford Road from the Chain Bar roundabout.

There is also the risk of HGVs or large vehicles using the semi-rural, narrow country lane from East Bierley to the A650, between Bradford and J27 of the M62.

Another concern is that there will be a huge increase in heavy goods traffic close to Woodlands Primary School.

At the planning meeting at Huddersfield Town Hall, one resident said the Bradford Road junction under the M606 was already difficult.

He said there had been a death at the junction, adding that the plan would bring “more traffic, more HGVs, more mayhem.”

Huddersfield Town Hall.

Highways England told Kirklees it was unlikely that a direct slip road from the M606 would be built.

Clr Sarah Ferriby from Bradford City Council said: “These roads and that junction are not suitable.

“There are great concerns about road safety.

“There has been a fatality on that road and the family are still grieving.

“I can understand the need for employment land but ultimately we have to take into consideration residents and people.

“It has to be accepted that site is landlocked – this is a totally unsuitable area to be developed.”

An agent from Keyland Developments told the committee the site was “critical” for Kirklees Council’s 15-year development blueprint – the Local Plan.

“There’s a need for manufacturing jobs and distribution space,” they said.

“This is the only one not in the green belt.

“Reusing this site reduces the need for green field development elsewhere in the borough.”

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Members of the six-strong committee were split on the decision.

Two Conservative and one Lib Dem members said they were against it, with Holme Valley Tory, Clr Donald Firth, saying the plan was trying to put a “quart into a pint pot.”

“Traffic will be quadrupled or ten times as high (as it is now),” he claimed.

The vote to approve it was tied at three for and three against.

Committee chairman, Clr Steve Hall, Labour member for Heckmondwike, said it was a “hard decision” but he used his casting vote to give it the thumbs up.

Following the decision, Peter Garrett, managing director of Keyland Developments told the Examiner it was an “excellent result” that would allow the “well located site to achieve its full potential” and allow regional businesses to expand.

The site is expected to be developed mostly as a distribution centre with about one third dedicated to general industrial use.